On 15 February 2022, the Italian tax authority released a new set of rules on how the new “patent box” is to be applied by taxpayers. Particularly, with a provision of the Director of the Revenue Agency, have been identified, in addition to the activities and eligible expenses, the content of the “patent box documentation” and the procedures for exercising the options to renewed the favorable tax regime as modified by the new 2022 Budget Law.
The super-deduction - The new patent box relief consists in the possibility of increasing by 110% the deduction of costs incurred in relation to the eligible intangible assets. That’s because the 2022 Budget Law has raised the fiscal deductibility of research and development costs relating to legally protectable intangible assets from 90 to 110%. However, the benefit must be claimed in the fiscal year when the intangible asset is patented, copyrighted or legally protected and may be used to deduct all the costs incurred in relation to the eligible assets in that year and in the previous eight years.
Scope and beneficiaries of the tax relief - Beginning from fiscal year 2021, taxpayers can apply for the new patent box regime that basically consists of a possibility, under certain conditions, of increasing the deduction of costs incurred in the development, enhancement, maintenance, protection and exploitation of certain eligible intangible assets, such as: software protected by copyright, patents, legally protected models and designs, biotechnological inventions included, and two or more intangible assets from the three categories abovementioned that complement each other in relation to a product or process. Furtherly, the provision, after underlining that only holders of business income "investors", ie those who are holders of the right to the economic exploitation of the intangible assets on which they have made the investment, can access the patent box.
Stefano Latini